How the PS4 and Xbox One console war will be won: China lifts 13-year ban on consoles

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For a while now, the console war has been decided on the Western battlefront, Japan no longer the deciding factor in both sales and what influences game design. American sales and taste has given rise to the most popular and successful video games of all time, but now, on the eve of the launch of the PS4 and Xbox One, a new soldier in the console war has joined the fight, and could massively boost sales, as well as instigate a sea change in game design that will forever alter the video gaming landscape. Chinese gamers historically have very different taste when it comes to games — and if they become the majority, which they probably will, this could be spell the end of the West’s obsession with shooters and the start of a new era of MMOs, MOBAs, and sandbox games.

For the past 13 years, the sale of video game consoles was banned in China. China’s State Council has now decided that video game consoles can be sold across the entire country so long as the foreign companies establish sales and production operations in Shanghai’s new free trade zone. Establishing either of those things isn’t particularly difficult, as China already has another successful free trade zone in Shenzhen. Video game consoles, however, weren’t banned due to tricky foreign production and sales policies, but because China decided that video games stunt the development of its youth. Of course, this didn’t prevent the entirety of video games from existing in the country, as the country’s citizens were still able to play PC and mobile games, and the black market does what it wants. Now, though, the Chinese government has lifted the console ban — perhaps because it has finally gotten with the times and realized video games don’t inherently stunt the development of youth, but largely in order to stimulate the new free trade zone in Shanghai.

As we saw a week ago, the iPhone 5S — though barely changed from the previous iPhone 5 — absolutely demolished previous iPhone sales records by almost double. The iPhone 5 sold around five million units through the opening weekend, while the 5S and 5C sold around nine million units combined during its opening weekend, with the 5S significantly outselling the 5C. Did the addition of a new, somewhat gaudy gold color and an easily-bypassed fingerprint scanner really make four million sales worth of a difference? Perhaps, but the 5S (and 5C) was the first time Apple began selling iPhones in China on release day, rather than after a long delay. The Chinese market certainly boosts sales, and in Apple’s case, to record-breaking amounts. Surely, allowing the sale one of the most popular forms of modern-day entertainment would give the next generation of consoles a boost.

The only caveat here is that PS4 and Xbox One may not see the benefits of the new market for a few years. The new policies will roll out over the course of the following three years. It’s still a savvy move on China’s part. Console manufacturers and game developers would love to leverage China’s population of 1.4 billion people as new customers, and China would love to get its new trade zone brimming with successful, modern businesses.

The details are currently slim, but we do know that China will allow the sale of game consoles to its residents. Even if a fraction of those 1.4 billion people hopped aboard the eighth generation, that would easily change the tide of Sony’s or Microsoft’s fortunes. For instance, the PlayStation 3 has sold a little less than 80 million units worldwide. If just 5% of China’s population purchases a PS4, that’s 80 million units — the number it took the entire world to hit over the course of seven years — sold in one country alone.

If the console market can break into China, and just a tiny fraction of the country’s population is interested in and can afford to purchase the consoles, that could feasibly change the face of the entire gaming industry. Assuming Chinese console gamers eventually become the majority, it could even change the culture and taste to which the gaming industry is trying to appeal.

Tagged In

Microsoft has already signed a deal to stream video game content to China, I would look for them to get the bigger foothold as the Chinese and Japanese aren’t exactly friends. I know some people might assume China would go with PlayStation, but China and Japan are vastly different and not exactly friendly.

Matthew Bryant

On a national level? They’re not overly friendly. On a cultural level? They’ve been fine for some time. Many Chinese lives in Japan. The rivalry ended a while ago when Japan stopped being a military powerhouse and attempting to take over China every hundred years or so. China’s more concerned about the US than Japan. In reality, neither product will sell well in China. The average pay for employed workers on the coast (where the pay is highest) is about 1/30th (often less) of the pay that most of the developed world receives per year. The vast majority of China can’t afford video games.

tech

LoL – The rivalry will never end. They shoot m*fing missiles at eachother regularly because of a stupid rock in the ocean they both want map credit for…Honestly, I could see China subsadising Xbox just to spite Sony Japan haha.

Sarcasm aside, I would guess Xbox would do better in China than Japan. Though it seems Japan is beginning to cast aside the console scene altogether. Sad.

Inkeyis

Japan is still a major player. For example, animal crossing was hugely profitable after making 2 million sales in japan after 2 months. Monster hunter 4 made the same amount of sales in 2 days solely because of japan.

Matthew Tripoli

If china could afford to shoot rockets at US they would. NOT sure if you follow world news but China has been trying to find ways to weaoen the US as a world power for while now. One thing they did wad try and change the world reserve currency which is the US dollar . They aldo want to keep us out of Syria.

Matthew Bryant

China isn’t a world power, so it really doesn’t matter. While they probably do have the largest military standing force in the world, there’s is ridiculously less powerful than the US’ after taking into account technology and number of vehicles. They also would not shoot missiles at us if they could. Furthermore, China and Japan aren’t firing missiles at each other. There was an incident where Japan accused China of targeting a Japanese sea-going vessel with a missile radar system, but that was as far as it went. Arguing that Japan is in bad standing with China is like pretending that the US is in bad standing in Mexico. Sure, our governments aren’t too happy with each other and there’s definitely prejudice, but overall we’re fine with each other.

asdfaasdf

the korean proved otherwise. the chinese army’s suprise attacked not only stopped the American military but crushed it. America’s army has been good but not the best. what makes america’s might and ability to win war is the airforce (best pilots and best aircraft), money and industrial output

Matthew Bryant

The Korean War happened about 60 years ago. Things were a little different then. Trust me, nowadays a surprise attack is a thing from the past unless it comes from a rebellion or underground somehow. Surveillance equipment makes that impossible. Not to mention our technology has grown just a “little” since then.

The planes win the war generally before anything else needs to be used. Rest assured we have more tanks and better tanks than China as well. We can shoot them WAY before they get in firing range of us. It wouldn’t be a very happy war for China, but it wouldn’t matter because nukes prevent us from ever going to war anyway so long as no crazies are involved. That’s why they’re called Peacekeepers. China would be stupid to attack Japan. Even the UN would get involved for that one.

asdfaasdf

un won’t get involve because china is a vetoing member…

Jamie MacDonald

China aren’t a Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain. What is there to gain from a war with the US, when they could just bleed your economy to death?

hirschmead321

my dad’s friend recently purchased a nice twelve month old Acura TSX by working part time at home… Get More Info w­w­w.J­A­M­20.c­o­m

Master Troll

That stupid rock has tons of natural gas and oil under it

Matthew Tripoli

So true also the economy is slowing down. Could be why they are lifting yhe ban

Basil Nolan

Senksaku/Daiyou Islnds, anyone? They’re not friendly. They only make convenient business.

Matthew Bryant

That describes 90% of the developed world toward the US…

Master Troll

tension still exists china and japan are currently fighting over an island near there borders …and everyone saying the Chinese can’t afford this and that need to learn economics the standard of living in china has done nothing but gone up

seanpat

20 percent of China has the same per capita as the US. That equals to about 270 million chinese. For a frame of reference there are 300 million people in the US. So, your assessment is wrong because that’s more than enough people to turn serious profits.

Matthew Tripoli

Thats the governments. China doesnt like the United states either but that doesnt stop the population from liking western culture. I think is up in the air

Gibo

i agree but i dont think China is “Friend” with anybody. They are super neutral

Ian Skinner

lol i can just see it now.. battlefield 6 and COD 9 are actually versions of ‘ Romance of the 3 kingdoms’… just like every other best selling game in the top 10 once China comes online.. Chinese are nothing if not predictable and boring as hell when it comes to gaming

Andreas

Very interesting article. I had forgotten that China even had a ban on consoles, probably because I thought it was so ridiculous the first time I heard it. Now that I know why they banned it in the first place, I can’t help but shake my head. It’s long been known now that banning something does not discourage the very thing that is trying to be removed from society. It in fact makes people more zealous towards it. The young adults in China that weren’t allowed to own a console as young children are probably going to be the first ones lined up on launch day. I can see this being a huge success in China, mainly because of those many young fathers buying them for their sons to give them a chance at a better childhood than they had. Whether you believe consoles are detrimental to youth or not, no one can disagree with the notion that video games are some of the most fun kids can have at home. Let’s just hope that it won’t be another bust for Microsoft in Asia because with Nintendo dropping the ball on the Wii-U, we might be looking at a worldwide monopoly from Sony if it takes off in China. Competition is always good for the customers!

On a side not, I don’t think it’s fair for the author to place the success of the new iPhone launches on the fact that China had access to them from day one. We don’t know how many iPhones have been sold in China, nor do we know the distribution of sales between the two models. I can see why he’d speculate that way, but to present it as fact instead of opinion is just bad journalism.

Matthew Bryant

Not many of anything sells in China. The majority of China is in poverty and even their pretty small middle class only makes about $1,000 per year on average. They can’t afford video games or iPhones. China is at developing status for a reason. If they can stabilize then they’ll continue heading to developed status, but it’s going to take a long time and honestly China’s economy is in very real danger of crumbling.

Andreas

Interesting information. It is indeed an unknown part of the world for me and many other Westerners, yet I can somewhat understand the situation there a bit better now thanks to you. I hope that when the big 3 (Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft) do decide to enter the Chinese market, they will take information such as yours into consideration. As for China, I hope one day soon that the average citizen can be as fortunate as us and have to worry about which console to choose. I look forward to debating with them about which console is the best :)

chinese pppp

Hey, dude, as a Chinese, I would say your news are out of time. I should give you some teaching. The typical middle class in China earn 15000 usd a year in most of the 100 big cities. and most common people in these cities earn around 8000 usd per year. even the salary for worker now in Apple’s factory earn around 5000 usd or higer. the reason you think chinese have a 1000 usd earn per year is that 0.8 billion chinese are farmers who work on the farm of small countries. they make a little money about 1500 usd every year. but these 0.8 billion people should not been considered as part if this debate about gaming consoles. In conclusion. most of the cities are not as poor as you think. if you had ever been to some medium city in China, not the big ones, you would know what I’m saying. If chinese “citizens” don’t buy foreign products(iphone, cars, pc, these things are gennerally considered to be introduced by westerners and has the same price as that in US which is unfair since the production cost is not the same), their life quality would be the same as you have in US. China is not the China you think. This is why foreigner always cannot understand many things about China

Matthew Bryant

Factory owners often don’t even pay their employees for months, just give them boarding and food and the promise that they’ll get paid eventually. They live in small rooms packed with beds with 30 other people (often 2 to each bed). There are literally millions of unemployed in camps outside of major cities on the coast. The rest of the country is beyond poverty ridden. There’s only 6% arable land, and local magistrates often give IOUs to farmers that they never pay back. Not to mention magistrates will often take bribes to “allow” people to have more than one child if they don’t have a son. The list goes on.

You are correct about one thing. My information is somewhat dated. It was from around 2002 when I was doing a lot of research on China. Thankfully their income has increased since then. It’s still only $6,000 for the wealthiest cities, and the average income for the entire country is about $2,000 for an entire family. So feel free to explain how they’re going to afford consoles. My point is still valid. Thanks for pointing out my inaccuracy, but you should probably do some research as well. No offense.

I’m quite satisfied with these results since they coincide with my rough estimation. and since you are talking about the middle class, so I was just giving some info about the middle class income in big cities. of course, waiters in big city have only $4000 income per year. but I’m highly confident that middle class earn $15000 per year since I know many friends in middle class. Surely, the the ratio of middle class and lower class is not 1:1, so the per capita of $6,091 income looks pretty reasonable for me.

Well, as the matter of the fact that employers delay to pay the workers, I must say they just delayed for the pay, but not evading the pay, otherwise the factory can be shut down already. so this doesn’t influence the per year income of the workers. they will finally get the money at the end of every year (the worst case).

BTW, I’m not saying we are rich here. we are still developing and learning from the western countries. But if you would like to hang around the cities in China, you would see even the waitress in a cheap restaurant is hold a genuine iPhone 4 in her hand. they only earn $400 per month, but they dare to cost two month’s saving to “buy a phone”, sarcastically. I feel very amazed by this but this is true for many lower class people in China.

Matthew Bryant

Income per capita is not the same as the income of the average Chinese citizen. Income is how much everyone would make in a communist society. Average income is the amount that the average person makes in China. It’s more than just adding up everyone’s income and then dividing by number of people. Also, 91st isn’t exact a very great ranking. Just saying… Most of them STILL can’t afford video games, so why are we still talking about it? China won’t be a very great market for either Sony or Microsoft and they know this. That’s why they’re not rushing in. They know that China’s economy is far worse than the vast majority of countries they sell consoles to. As such, it probably isn’t going to sell overly well even though there are a lot of people. Reality exists.

Inkeyis

I doubt sony would have a monopoly in china. Despite weak sales from the wiiu, it is the only next gen console in Asia at least until next year. By the time ps4 comes out there, smash bros, Mario kart, donkey kong, legend of Zelda, and a 3d Mario would have turned the wiiu around. Also, the ps4 may attract the young adults of china, but the wiiu will attract the children of china, as they have never experienced the wii. Even if the wiiu is a flop, Nintendo still has the massively successful 3ds to sell to china. Nintendo and Sony are about on par in japan, and I expect likewise for china. Microsoft is a different story

Andreas

A lot of people make the point that all Nintendo has to do is release first-party titles (why didn’t they do this already?) for Wii U sales to take off. However, industry leaders and pundits almost all agree that this console is not next gen. Heck, I’m pretty sure that most consumers probably aren’t even aware that it exists (where was the heavy advertisement?). It was a terrible launch, and I’m not sure they can fully recover. Sure they sold over 100 million Wiis, but how many people still play them regularly today? Nintendo has turned into a gimmicky company, and with the new multifunctional consoles from Microsoft and Sony on the horizon, I don’t think the mass market is willing to continue funding Nintendo’s experiments. The 3DS has finally taken off after a rocky start, but we are discussing console gaming and not handhelds. Nintendo will still be fine because of their reasonable pricing and loyal fanbase (hello, Japan), but I’m predicting them to be a distant third in this race.

Inkeyis

No, I’m predicting Microsoft to be in third. With a high price, a forced kinect, very low amount of well known exclusives and the amount of money they invested in non gaming features, they may have America well, but that’s it. Nintendo is bringing out their exclusives (it takes time to make them well and not milk the franchise like ea or activision) and it is starting to sell the system. The wiiu had a great increase in sales recently despite gta v coming on other consoles. With the money they made of off the 3ds, they stated they have a lot more money for ads and will heavily advertise for the rest of the year. Yes we are talking about consoles and not handhelds, but they still do play a part, as Nintendo is trying to improve the wiiu with the 3ds and Sony is doing likewise for the vita with the ps4

Andreas

Actually, Microsoft might not even have North America in their back pocket. The PS4 had a much stronger unveiling, and with more raw power at a lower price it might considerably outsell Xbox One in the US and Canada. Don’t forget the immense popularity of PS2 and the slow start its successor (PS3) had due to its high price. I’m confident that Microsoft knows North America is its main market, which is why they went back on so many of their original policies that were scrutinized immediately after their unveiling. However, Microsoft will always have Halo to push consoles. What’s encouraging to me is they’ve been spending a lot of money (reports say 1 billion) trying to find the next Gear of Wars/Mass Effect/whatever. For example, their new exclusive Titanfall is one of the most anticipated next gen console games for any platform. Unlike Nintendo, Titanfall is releasing within the first year of Xbox One’s release. What has Nintendo launched in its first year, Pimkim 3 and an updated Zelda game? Why did they launch last year if the only games people really want to play on Nintendo aren’t going to be ready for this holiday season? The reason WII Us are starting to sell is because of the very recent price drop and lack of new games for all consoles (especially WII), not because they are anticipating new games. People buy consoles for games that are already out, not for ones that don’t even have a trailer yet! Many publishers and developers are canceling games for Nintendo and even reevalutating if they should make any other games in the future. It’s dark times for Nintendo, which is why I place them third. You could be right and Microsoft end up there, but it’ll only be because Sony dominates while the other two fight for the scraps.

Inkeyis

ok, so we agree that sony will have a lead (I’m arguing not as big) over both consoles. yes the wii u did not have a great start, but then again, does it matter? Regardless of the lack of great games last year, it does have great games now, and more coming, and that will boost consoles. Just look at the list: wii fit u (original sold more than 30 million), mario kart (mario kart wii alone outsold all HALO games combined), smash bros, donkey kong, wii sports u (speaks for itself), 3d mario, sonic (should have a dedicated following), with support with watchdogs, cod: ghosts, assassin’s creed, skylanders, and arkham origins. For really good franchises to match those listed, Microsoft has halo, battlefield, maybe kingdom hearts and arguably titanfall; sony will have final fantasy XV, battlefield, maybe kingdom hearts, maybe the order, maybe infamous. Are you willing to spend $400-$500 for those franchises? Maybe depending on the kind of games you like and thats fine, but not everyone likes those games (looking at the casual crowd). Nintendo already has killer franchises, it does not need to find more, but it is adding X and bayonetta 2 which look really good. Also, the launch was only bad because of delays, look at the original exclusive list: NSMBU, pikmin 3, wonderful 101, zombiu, rayman legends. those five games are all greatly rated and would have made a killer launch, however 3 were unexpectedly delayed. You said people are buying the wiiu because of lack of games on other consoles? did you not know GTA V, rayman legends, last of us, got very high scores and a huge following on the other consoles. That is clearly not the reason.The price drop helped, but so did WW HD (again receiving high scores) and the other upcoming games.

Andreas

By comparing the Wii U sales in its first year with the previous generation’s you will notice that it’s a drastic understatement to say, “wii u did not have a great start.” I’m no business major, but I do think that strong launches are important. Why? Moving hardware leads to more software, and vice versa. Take a moment and picture yourself as a video game developer. Now tell me why you would make an exclusive title for a console with only 4 million sales after its first year when two new consoles with more than 1 million preorders each are just around the corner. Add in the facts that the Wii U is far less powerful than the incoming generation, and its controller is not the standard one requiring R&D (added costs).

Apart from Super Smash Bros. and the other classic Nintendo titles, nothing at all excites me from your list. Wii Fit U? No thanks. Wii Sports U? It was free with the Wii for a reason. Wind Waker HD? I already played it 10 years ago (Microsoft did the same thing with Halo: CE). Nintendo caters to a certain demographic (young children and Japan), but the average gamer has changed in 2013. Most big video games are now developped for PCs, and PC gamers do not want to play Donkey Kong 4 hours a day.

As for current gen, aside from the 2 games you named there really isn’t much else: Splinter Cell, Saints Row 4, Tomb Raider, Bioshock. Six games over a whole year, that’s it. Tech news websites have been predicting 2013 as the start of the next generation for a long time now because so few big titles were slated to release this year. The other big games coming out like sports games, Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs, COD, Battlefield, etc. are all coming out on PS4 and XB1 as well. Consumers are looking into the next generation because they know the current one is just about done, and a few of them bought the Wii U. I just hope it wasn’t for nothing.

Inkeyis

Strong launches are important, and the wiiu would have had a great launch if it weren’t for delays. However those delays are now over, and with the new price and bundles, this might as well be a new launch for the wiiu (also occurring before the other consoles). Comparing the first year wiiu sales to the last gen, the sales are not too far off. They are only far off if you compare them to the wii, which obviously had massive success. Adding hidden costs now, well the other consoles require you to buy a game, more controllers for friends (wii remotes work for wiiu), online multiplayer, and no backwards compatibility (gta V came out and if its not for next gen, then BC comes in handy).

One thing that many people overlook, is that nintendo still has a strong hold on the casual crowd. Why is this important? because games like rayman legends sell better on the wiiu despite the lower audience. Same for Sonic which is why the wiiu will have 3 exclusive games. Who would want to develop for the wiiu? the people who make casual games like raving rabbids, skylanders, just dance, lego games, etc. and want their game with an audience that plays those games instead of dark older games. The casual audience may be less devoted, but it is massive.

You may not like wii fit or wii sports, but others do and they will make a difference. Smash bros and mario kart speak for themselves. The wind waker hd was blatantly called something people can play while the next real zelda game was being made (a game that was supposedly not at E3 because the creator felt every other nintendo game would be overlooked and overshadowed). The average gamer could not have changed so quickly, and the pc gamers were probably never interested in nintendo games to begin with. PC games are big (Underestimating bethesda is a mistake), but they also cater to a different audience.

The point of listing the third party games was not to show that the wiiu is the best place for those games, but that it is not left completely alone. When it comes to consumers looking at next gen, I think you are overestimating the interest. I would know because my friends and I want to buy the ps4, but so far most of the great games for ps4 are for the ps3 (destiny, battlefield, watchdogs, etc.) with the exception of knack, killzone, infamous, the order. those exclusives look nice, but not enough (for me at least) to buy a ps4. It would be better if it had BC because I could sell my ps3 and continue to play GTA V, beyond two souls, last of us,… FF XV does look really good and I will play it, but it comes out by next year at least. The wiiu on the other hand will have great exclusives and soon, which is why people are probably buying it now. If next gen is already here, why do “next gen” games like killzone and ryse play at 30fps and less than 1080p, when current gen games can match that, (all wiiu games at E3 were 1080p and 60fps).

eonvee375

more the merrier…

Saeteurnkl

i can assure you about one thing and that is Microsoft’s more strict pay wall structure wont work in china.

Matthew Bryant

Of course, since 95% of China can’t afford a video game system, this doesn’t mean much. They make under $1,000 a year on average on the east coast. Most of the country is in poverty. China opening it’s doors isn’t exactly groundbreaking for any industry. It might be in 10 years if they can find a way to stabilize their economy and they move past developing status, but China is not another Europe, Japan, or US in the video game industry. It’s more like South America. There’s just not a whole lot of demand at the price points.

NL37

Hopefulness and Optimistic Stats decreased by 70%!!
^The sad reality

chojin999

Exactly. But some managers fail to see that while others surely know that but to keep their frauds going they need more and more lies to steal more money.

James

Depends on where you live and who you are in China. People living in Shanghi and Beijing for instance make relatively decent wages. However, rural people live on peanuts. The catch is you don’t really get a choice on where you live as a Chinese citizen. You are placed in certain areas to help prevent overcrowding in cities and places suited towards your education level. Bottom line if you have very little education you are stuck farming in a rural area starving to death. If you’re educated you get a golden ticket to the city and a decent job.

Matthew Bryant

Millions of Chinese immigrate from the country to the coastal cities every year. Of course, there aren’t enough jobs for them so most of them sit in camps outside of cities until they find a job at some factory that will exploit them for the next… forseeable future, but you are correct that education does make a difference in China. However, your decent wage is not very impressive. It’s far below that of any other developed countries. You’re looking at about $5,000-$6,000 average in the richest cities on the coast for an entire family, and a national average of $2,000. Realize that about 70% of the country lives in the rural areas on China and most of them are technically unemployed (since there are about 50 times more farmers than are needed for the small amount of arable land available).

China allows most of their citizens to live as if they were in a third world country, but then transforms the coast to a thriving business world. It’s pretty terrible. Not to mention even on the coast they have a long way to go before they have any hope of competing with the rest of the world. Of course, it doesn’t really help that most of the developed world is taking advantage of China either, but China’s government can’t do much about it since it’s the only thing that’s really floating their economy. It’s a bad situation all around, and it’s likely to get worse before it gets better.

Geedi Mohammed

dude wtf why do u have a hate on china this is about new market opening up and so what those 6000 can stil buy a ps4 heck there richer than me and i live in holland one of the richest country in tha world

James

It’s amazing how little you both know about China. The average overall wage in China is 1,500RMB (£150) per month. However in the cities this average is much higher.

The stuff about being ‘placed’ is also nonsense. This all ended years ago. Now you have absolute ‘freedom’ of choice (only restricted by the amount of cash you have).

“Not to mention even on the coast they have a long way to go before they have any hope of competing with the rest of the world”. You have clearly never been to China. I needn’t say more.

Mando44646

this, exactly. They’d be lucky if 5% of China even has the spare money to throw at a console

Shi Wei

many ppl in china bought expensive cell phone, and also expensive PC or Mac, they just havent got used to buy the genuine software…. so I think if china government let go the consoles to be sold in china , Sony and MS will definitely get a big money from it. but there will be nothing significant to change for the game software companies such as EA, because chinese wont by the game. except the uncrackable online games.

madjr

a Chinese made steam machine :D

sd173

I think that the Crazy power-mad Chinese dictators took the saying that video games”rot a person’s brain” a little too literally.

VirtualMark

Wow, I had no idea that the Chinese government had banned games. I knew they were assholes, but didn’t know they were that bad. FFS just let people live their life how they see fit!

Joel Detrow

Not games, or even game consoles – just game consoles made in other countries. In other words, only Chinese consoles were allowed. Rather silly, isn’t it?

The Chinese hate the japanese you moron. Xbox will dominate in China because it’s not made by the japs.

quinten488

doubt it

Ippoletta

You doubt history? lol. plenty of my Chinese friends are anti japanese. especially the ones in China. they do not really get along. besides Microsoft made a deal with the Chinese entertainment industry or government or something along those lines. so they (Microsoft) are definitely planning to release there.

quinten488

I doubt it, but we will see.

Ippoletta

What do you doubt?

quinten488

I doubt Xbox will dominate, you do know that the PS2 sold in China for a while before they banned consoles.

YoMomma

you sir are a moron

quinten488

that hurts man.

Ippoletta

Lol that was probably only in hong kong. the rest of China gets a chance to buy the consoles now so we’ll see. im telling you dont expect the PS4 to sell much, that is, if they even allow it to be sold.

Phobos

What took them so long?

Axe99

“One country alone” that has around a fifth of the world’s population and does a huge proportion of its manufacturing ;). The point is appropriate though – it’s a huge market and it opening up is massive. I’m more interested in the games m’self though – the Chinese have an incredibly deep cultural tradition and can be as creative as anyone :).

KuchikiSentou

No way PS4 and Xbox Juan will sell in China. Too expensive.
It’s PS3 and 360s, maybe even PS2s.
The middle-class income bracket is largest in China, not many families can afford a $400, $500 console.

Andreas

You’ve just given me an idea. We can start a business and sell second hand 360s, PS3s, and Wiis to China. We help the environment and make millions of Chinese people happy, all while turning a profit. It’s a win-win-win!

jim

This is thanx to Microsoft striking deals and negotiating with the Chinese government

KaiKnows

What I like most is the hope that the FPS genre may die out a little

YoMomma

Don’t like shooters? then don’t play them you fucking moron

KaiKnows

YOU SOUND LIKE A 40 year old virgin who still lives with his parents. Stop being a bitch!!

joe

Sony should start making PS2’s again. I bet it would be a huge hit in China, with the thousands of back catalog of games.

CA$H

they would just chip the console to play back ups they bootleg everything in china

joe

ya but PS2’s would be so cheap to make now, that they could just make money off selling the console. They don’t have to make money off the software but the software is still a selling point, the fact that those thousands of titles exist will sell the console whether or not people pay for the titles or bootleg them.

Joel Detrow

Until now, that was because they had to.

Scott

so much greed in this article. i can hear the drooling of money.

barom

People are looking at this wrong. Yes China has potential to be a huge market but the people there don’t believe in buying “content”. Ask any Chinese living there if they buy DVDs, Blu-rays or DVD. Heck, PC games exist there, ask if anyone buy PC games. If they did, World of Warcraft numbers would’ve been multiplied by 10.

Not to mention that consoles are openly on sale in the country. I was in Shanghai in 2011 and there were plenty of places to buy PS3s and 360s but not really too many games. You see the consoles are pre-hacked and instead you could buy a hard drive loaded with games. That’s how the market there works. Unfortunately for the video game industry, selling content is where they make the profit.

convolution

Damn. Everyone wants to suck China’s dick these days.

Boudou

Its naive to think that games won’t have to go through a strict approval process by Chinese censors.

After all consoles have been banned thus far, and Hollywood needs to jump through hoops to make content ‘acceptable’ to Chinese audiences. For instance, to get Iron Man 3 approved, the studio sent Robert Downey Jr. to meet Chinese bureaucrats:

Worse, the Chinese market to ripe with piracy, which is why everything is F2P and online. Hitherto only systems that allowed for pirated games, through grey market channels, have any remote level of success. Its a very different market from the US, and it requires government supervision within online gaming (see World of Warcraft in China).

The reality is that China won’t make a massive impact in either the Xbone or PS4 in the near term.

boughtat 16

I totally don’t get it when you say that the 5s is not a major change from last years model. Sure it still has a glass front and keypad like every Iphone since 2007 when Apple brought the form factor to the market. But a complete overhaul of the OS, 64bit chip, and the easiest passcode security system (the one touch finger print reader that actually works unlike past attempts) ever to be on a phone, and a tone of other usability and security features? This phone has things that actually work and make it a real improvement from any other phone on the market in ways that count.

Andreas

People have become spoiled by the rapid advancements in technology. Physically the iPhone hasn’t changed much since the iPhone 4, which is probably where this jaded attitude comes from. I agree that the 5S is a nice improvement over the 5, but I do hope that Apple has something special up its sleep for the 6. We need a new look!

The Silver Fox

You damaged your credibility with your statement that Apple’s Touch ID is easily bypassed. Shame, as the rest of your article was excellent.

Andreas

Opinions are not facts. This website continually forgets that.

faw

You ignore the problem of piracy. Console sales wont be affected by it, but game sales will. So I highly doubt Chinese gamers will have any influence on the kinds of games being made until they actually start paying for them.

Andreas

Ironically this is exactly why Microsoft wanted all those “evil” policies implemented, probably because of the new markets they wanted to enter. Everyone is aware of how big the Asian blackmarket is, which is the risk Microsoft wanted to reduce. I wonder how their plans for Chinese deployment have changed. I wouldn’t be surprised if they revisit their old policies exclusively for China, or decide to skip China this generation altogether.

faw

You ignore the problem of piracy. Console sales wont be affected by it, but game sales will. So I highly doubt Chinese gamers will have any influence on the kinds of games being made until they actually start paying for them.

YoMomma

I stopped after reading after you suggested that shooters would stop being made…news flash…developers will still make games THEY want to play too

DReview

Yup FPS will still be developed as long as Military has its footing in Entertainment industry. Also they probably will still be developed as long as us Americans keep masturbating to fantasies of war.

CHEIF KEEF

WHAT DA XBOX BOUT

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